Many people have limb and other sorts of dysfunctionalities which restrict the mobility of limbs, such as arms, legs, or the neck, and which make it very painful to fully extend or use such limbs. Examples of such dysfunctionalities include severe arthritis which attacks such joints as the knees or elbows and which makes it impossible or painfully difficult to respectively and fully extend or use the arm and leg. Moreover, some of these dysfunctionalities may only be temporary and may be caused by surgery. For example, an individual undergoing physical therapy after extensive and perhaps reconstructive shoulder surgery may find it temporarily difficult and painful to fully use one or more shoulders and arms.
Many individuals suffering from these dysfunctionalities have difficulty in "putting on clothes" such as pants, shirts, or various other articles and have further difficulties in removing such clothing from their body. These difficulties are primarily due to the difficulty in extending their dysfunctional limbs in the manner necessary to put on or to remove such clothing. This difficulty necessitates the need for personal assistance in this activity. Such assistance is both costly and undesirable to many people as it is frequently regarded as an invasion of privacy and as unwanted dependence.
There is therefore a need for a garment or article of clothing which is adapted to be selectively and easily removed or applied by and to an individual having the aforedescribed dysfunctionalities. There is also a need for a method of manufacturing such a garment, effective to allow such garments to be easily made at a minimum of cost.